The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) branch, has threatened legal action against the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) over what it described as a “deliberate and discriminatory” mass failure recorded in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Speaking during a press briefing in Nsukka on Wednesday, ASUU-UNN chairman, Oyibo Eze, accused JAMB of deliberately manipulating results to prevent candidates from the South East, and particularly Igbo students, from gaining admission into Nigerian universities.

“My office has been inundated with protests, calls and visits by parents and the general public on this deliberate massive failure in 2025 JAMB examination,” Eze said.

“ASUU will challenge this result in court if JAMB fails to review the scores and award candidates their merited marks.”

According to JAMB’s official statistics, over 1.5 million out of 1,955,069 candidates scored below 200 in the 2025 UTME.

Eze alleged that a significant portion of these low scores were recorded in the South East and in Lagos State, where a large Igbo population resides.

He pointed to what he described as “regional bias” in university admission cut-offs, saying students in the South East are often required to score significantly higher than their counterparts in other parts of the country to gain admission, particularly into competitive courses like medicine.

“JAMB knows that children from the South East must score higher before they can get admission, whereas their counterparts in some regions are admitted with as low as 120 to study medicine,” Eze said.

Eze cited the example of the University Secondary School in Nsukka, where he claimed no student who sat for the 2025 UTME scored up to 200 — a situation he said was “unbelievable and unacceptable.”

“This is a school with superlative students who have consistently excelled academically. Even if JAMB discovered one or two cases of malpractice, is that enough reason to punish all others who studied diligently?” he asked.

He called on South East governors to intervene, warning that continued silence on the issue could jeopardise the academic future of an entire generation of students from the region.

“The governors in the zone should not sit and watch JAMB toy with the academic future of our children,” he said.

Eze emphasised that while ASUU supports the punishment of candidates found guilty of examination malpractice, it strongly opposes blanket penalties affecting entire exam centres.

He concluded by urging JAMB to urgently review the UTME results, warning that the issue may escalate into a national protest if not addressed promptly.